Hand-Me-Down ( read by her nephew )
You are a ploughed dark field,
overturned soil swaddles
your heart as treasure,
Clontibret’s tapped seam1
you pinned my paintings up,
each one a Gerard Dillon
your kisses a first-aid box,
arguments sticking plaster
smiles as stretchmarks,
elastic purrs
you had Willow pattern teacups,
on birthdays we raised our pinky’s
your laugh a grandstand,
one-liners own goals
freckles as rosary beads,
always to be counted on
arms comfort blankets,
carries my worries
you said, when asleep you sigh
my snore is Herculean
your voice as I waken,
a brass band of blessings
when you died, grief was the sea,
a hurricane I was treading
a boat was your face,
the drogue2 I let go
bequeathed in burnished thoughts,
in time, I’m a sunbeam.
1 A huge untapped seam of gold has been discovered near Clontibret in County Monaghan.
The seam, found in 2008, is believed to be the biggest ever located in Ireland.
2 A drogue is used to slow the boat down in a storm
You are a ploughed dark field,
overturned soil swaddles
your heart as treasure,
Clontibret’s tapped seam1
you pinned my paintings up,
each one a Gerard Dillon
your kisses a first-aid box,
arguments sticking plaster
smiles as stretchmarks,
elastic purrs
you had Willow pattern teacups,
on birthdays we raised our pinky’s
your laugh a grandstand,
one-liners own goals
freckles as rosary beads,
always to be counted on
arms comfort blankets,
carries my worries
you said, when asleep you sigh
my snore is Herculean
your voice as I waken,
a brass band of blessings
when you died, grief was the sea,
a hurricane I was treading
a boat was your face,
the drogue2 I let go
bequeathed in burnished thoughts,
in time, I’m a sunbeam.
1 A huge untapped seam of gold has been discovered near Clontibret in County Monaghan.
The seam, found in 2008, is believed to be the biggest ever located in Ireland.
2 A drogue is used to slow the boat down in a storm
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Anita Gracey has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Washing Windows – Irish Women Write Poetry (Ed. Eavan Boland), Abridged, The Honest Ulsterman, Poetry NI, The Poets’ Republic, The Blue Nib, Culture Matters, CAP Anthology, Bangor Literary Review and Waterways Story-making Festival. Her work is featured in The Poetry Jukebox. She was shortlisted Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2018 and shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing in 2019.